Teens and ‘tweens are notoriously resistant to taking responsibility for chronic illnesses. Of those with asthma, for example, only 30% of teens take their preventative medicine correctly. What’s a parent to do? You want to teach your child independence and self-reliance, but these lessons are often two-steps-forward, one-step-back. In the case of meds, the lessons can come at a heavy price!
Cincinnati doctors are trying to solve this problem by texting reminders to their young patients. Dr. Maria Britto, an asthma specialist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, came up with the idea when she noticed how much text messaging her teen patients did while in her office. A pilot test is underway to see if text messaging teenaged patients reminders can improve how they manage their asthma.
I think this is a great idea, too, which is why text reminders is one of the services we provide through WELLalarm™. We can nag your 14-year-old diabetic child for you, sending her timely reminders to get her insulin! Any way parents and medical professionals can communicate with teenagers in their language gives us all a little more hope.
Read more about teenage non-compliance in this article on transplant patients from Transplant Journal.
This article from Medical News Today discusses medical noncompliance among teenage cancer patients.
I enjoyed this blog post by a Georgetown medical student on the frustrations of treating noncompliant teenage HIV-postitive patients.
Image from Blueshift.
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